As for the other 125, most of the good players in Europe or South America are on that level, if not higher.

However, for all the success stories like Ginobili, Nowitzki, Parker and Yao, there are puzzling NBA failures like Lithuania’s Sarunas Jasikevicius, who almost gunned down the U.S. at Sydney and dropped the Americans in Athens, and Greece’s Vassilis Spanoulis, who led the stunning upset of Mike Krzyzewski’s first U.S. squad at the 2006 world championships.

Spanoulis played 31 games in one season in Houston and fled back to Europe, turning down a chance to go to San Antonio, which had traded for him.

Jasikevicius played 63 games in two seasons with Indiana and Golden State and is going back to Europe.

“In the NBA, I’m sort of an average player,” says Jasikevicius, “and for an average player, it’s important to find a team that fits you.

“If you have the right fit, it makes you look better. Obviously, the superstars are going to fit in everywhere. They’re going to be dominating the game, having an impact on the game.

“That’s not the case with me. I had to find the right spot for me to be a successful NBA player and I just chose wrong, as far as going to Indiana.”

Adding to the Europeans' savvy are the international rules, which take away the big U.S. advantage in size and athleticism and make the NBA's power game counterintuitive.

Instead, the conical lane and zone defenses make it a shooter’s game. Anyone who saw the U.S. miss 14 of its first 15 three-pointers on Sunday, even as it turned its game with China into a track meet, can understand how fast a hot-shooting team that is smart enough to slow the Americans down can close the gap.

-- Mark Heisler

Photo: Sarunas Jasikevicius of Lithuania and Argentina's Carlos Delfino are average NBA players, but in the international game, which emphasizes shooting and downplays the power game, they can be stars. Credit: Gabriel Buoys/AFP/Getty Images